A leaf in the Desert
by Yena S
Summary: A team is like a family. And training alonside them has made Tenten strong. But the "Weapon's Master of Konoha" has been assigned on a year-long mission to Suna. Now she'll have to fight even harder to gain recognition from her new family. The Sands.


**_This is my second Narutard story.  
This time the Crack couple is KankurouXTenten.  
Once again, two awesome character's who don't get enough time in the spotlight.  
This one's in the future too, and it takes place mostly in Suna.  
With that said, I love KankuTen ( :  
ENJOY! :d_**

_huff huff_

_huff huff_

The desert echoed with the ragged breath of a determined Kunoichi.

_huff huff_

She fervently wiped the sweat off her brow, grimacing as small grains of sand scratched her sun burnt skin.

"Ugh!" She groaned in frustration, earning her looks from several of the other jounin she was traveling with. But she was far past caring about such trivial things.

She let out a small, almost inaudible, sigh.

_I knew I should have turned down this stupid mission…_

The jounin thought to herself as she trudged on in the blistering heat. She quickly regretted thinking that, when she remembered all of the hopeful jounin that had wanted this mission so very badly. But even though some of them were stronger and more seasoned than she, Tsunade had picked her. A small smile tickled the corners of her mouth.

Tsunade had picked her.

She had unconsciously begun to increase her speed, to the point of causing the other jounin to begin groaning themselves. She stopped herself from going any faster though. She knew the others were probably in worse shape than she was.

She grinned

They may be used to the climate and terrain. But none of them had ever trained along side Rock Lee.

"Ah, Tenten-sama, we are nearing the village now."

One of the older jounin stated between choppy breaths.

Tenten's grin widened.

"Well then, try to keep up now everyone."

She said in a mocking tone, and before she could hear any protests from her fellow shinobi, she took to the ground like a maniac, leaving the others in the dust…or rather in the sand. The jounin's stopped to catch their breath, shaking their heads at one another.

"I knew I shouldn't have taken this stupid mission…" One of them mumbled under their breath, before pushing onward once again.

_Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out...deep breaths…_

He clutched the doorknob, swallowing hard.

_C'mon you can do this!_

His hand began to shake, every horror story he'd heard about the terrible Gaara of the sand began running through his mind. He heard a rustle behind the door, and quickly withdrew his hand.

_Get it together…_

It was the young chuunin's first day as the official messenger to the Kazekage. He took in another deep breath

…_oh maaaan…_

He tried once again to gather up the courage to open the door. The whole reason he hadn't taken the jounin exam was so he wouldn't have to face anything dangerous. And now he had to bring messages to the most dangerous person in the whole village. His hand reached out for the doorknob once again, shaking dangerously

"Oh my god, would you just open the damn door already!"

He startled at the sharp and uncompromising voice behind him. He whipped around to find the second most dangerous person in the village; he let out a small squeak.

"T-Temari-sama!"

The Kunoichi was curtly stirring a small cup of tea, and looking down on him in a terrifying manner.

"It's a wonder how such a coward could pass the Chuunin exams." She growled as she pushed past him, flinging open the door, and pulling him inside with her.

"Here's your tea Gaara." She said almost cheerfully as she approached the Kazekage's desk, pushing papers off to the side, to make room for the small cup.

Gaara's gaze followed Temari, as did the Chuunin's. She gracefully placed his drink down and looked at her younger brother almost…sweetly… The chuunin continued to look at her and had to admit that despite her being unshakably evil, she wasn't all that bad to look at.

Then he felt a pair of eyes on him... which immediately made him start shaking again

He looked up to find a pair of green steely eyes on him. Although he didn't say anything out loud, the redhead's eyes were definitely saying 'Keep staring at my sister, and I'll kill you.'

He gulped and shifted anxiously from foot to foot

The Kazekage's gaze remained on him, and soon Temari's gaze was upon the unfortunate Chuunin as well. But neither of them spoke a word. They seemed to be expecting something, the dazed assistant was too dumbstruck to even connect that they were waiting for the scroll he possessed.

Temari, being the more impatient of the two let out an exasperated breath

"Well? We're waiting!"

The Chuunin finally remembered why he was here, and fumbled for the scroll. The Kazekage slowly held out an expectant hand. The chuunin gulped. He walked gingerly up to the desk, and placed it in his open palm. He caught a glimpse of the Kazekage's face, and swore he could see pure evil. He let out a small whimper, Temari rolled her eyes.

"Oh get out of here! You're pathetic!"

She yelled at him, as he practically ran out of the office, tail between his legs.

"I have no idea why you haven't fired him!"

She said leaning over to read the scroll he was slowly unrolling. She skimmed the first few lines

"What? We're getting a dispatch from Konoha?"

Garra nodded slowly, and continued to read. Temari waited for him to explain further. But he just rolled it up and set it to the side, returning to his mounds of paper work.

"so…"

Garra looked up at her with a blank expression.

"Is it someone we know?" she asked

Gaara paused for a moment before replying

"Yes, she was at the chuunin exams."

"Hmm…Sakura?" Temari guessed as she looked out the window dreamily.

Gaara ran his fingers through his hair thoughtfully before answering

"No, that teammate of Lee's…Tenten."

Temari spun around

"WHAT?! That girl I almost killed at the preliminaries!?"

Gaara nodded, digging in his desk for a blank scroll.

Temari scowled. That girl had just become a jounin this year and already she was getting sent off to other villages! She'd been applying to be posted in Konoha for years now and had never gotten the opportunity. Not to mention that Temari was obviously the stronger of the two.

She crossed her arms and tried to hide the jealously welling up in her chest.

Gaara watched his older sister with interest, trying to read the emotions she was going through right now. He could tell she was trying to hide them, but she never was really good at that. Some of them always seemed to come bubbling out, of course only those close to her could tell. Eventually she let her arms rest at her sides.

"Why is she coming here anyways?"

Gaara looked out the window, taking a sip of his tea

"We need her."

Tenten sighed. On her mad dash to the village, she hadn't noticed exactly how far behind her traveling companions had fallen. She looked out at the desert which she'd just crossed, to see they were nothing more than little dots on the horizon. If she would've known that she couldn't get past the village guards without the official documents her escorts were carrying, she probably would have taken it a little easier. She leaned against the walls surrounding the village; she was currently denied access into.

Looking away, she readjusted her shoulder strap, accidentally rubbing it against her terribly sun burnt skin.

"Ouch! Damn…"

She took a closer look at her newly burnt flesh, narrowing her eyes at the rows of small blisters beginning to puff.

She frowned; she never really was one to avoid sunburn. Compared to Sakura, Ino, and Hinata, she was at least 3 shades darker. She'd never be the creamy-skinned beauties they were. She sighed. She was also the only one of them that didn't have a boyfriend. Correction: had never had a boyfriend.

She wasn't half bad looking, a little boring maybe, but definitely not ugly. Of course all those years of pining after Neji hadn't done anything for her. Even if someone had liked her she probably wouldn't have even noticed.  
The closest thing she had to a relationship was Lee…but that was weird. By now they were like brother and sister. Ever since she took up training with them three years ago, Lee and Gai-sensai had become like family. Hell, she even moved into the same apartment complex as Lee, right next door to Gai's place. He might as well adopt them both. She chuckled to herself at the thought. Now **that** would be weird.

She looked up to see that her team of jounin's had gotten in gear, and were approaching.

She slung the scroll back over her shoulder, grateful to have her train of thought interrupted. Lately she'd been getting lost in her head far too often for her own liking.

* * *


End file.
